When teaching a class on how to draw animals, we covered mostly graphite and colored pencils, but one of my students wanted to draw with crayons. It was fun cracking open the box of Crayolas and giving the class a demonstration. I shared the illustrations I had done for the book, and we analyzed the characteristics of drawing with crayons.

Psychologist Gloria Martinez Ayala tells the Huffington Post that coloring triggers and stimulates the brain areas associated with motor skills, creativity, and the senses. Coloring helps to calm the part of our brains called the amygdala, which controls our emotions and stress. Simply put? Coloring takes our minds off our problems, and as a result leaves us feeling much more relaxed, rested, and at ease. Furthermore, experts say that concentrating on a coloring book lets us mentally escape by bringing back memories of childhood, a less stressful time for many of us.